All At Once It Happened
by smallearthcat
Summary: Steve and Danny's relationship, as told through carguments. Steve/Danny slash.


Back when they first met, their arguments went something like this:

"Really? You really think you have more right to drive my car than I do?" Danny held the keys clutched to his chest protectively, pretty sure that Steve wouldn't actually come at him to try and get them away.

"It's a police vehicle, Danny. Just because you drive it home at night and maintain it doesn't make it yours."

"How does that not make it mine? That is pretty much the very definition of owning something!"

"Is your name on the registration?"

"My name is on the form assigning it to me."

"That's because you filled out the requisition form!"

"Exactly! If you'd filled out the form - which really, like you were going to fill out an unnecessary form - then you could have put your own name on it and had primary responsibility for it."

"Well, yeah, but then you wouldn't-"

"I wouldn't what, take care of the car for us all? Make sure you don't total the thing every other Tuesday?"

"You drive too slow." If Steve was changing the subject, Danny must have had a point with that last one.

"No, I drive like a sane person who'd like to make it to tomorrow in one piece."

"I don't drive that badly." Defensiveness now; Danny might actually get to drive his own car today.

"Like hell you don't! I fear for my life every time I get in the car with you!"

Oh God, not the pout. Not that Steve would ever admit to pouting, but Danny knew he did because he was doing it right now. "Pouting at me will not make me let you drive the car."

"I'm not pouting." Steve pouted harder.

Danny loosened up just that little bit in his amusement, and that was when Steve struck, plucking the keys right out of his fingers and hopping in the driver seat almost before Danny even knew what had happened.

Danny sighed and let it go. There was no way he'd get Steve to let him drive after that.

***

For awhile, that was the bulk of it. Arguing about the car or the music or where they stopped for lunch got to be pretty standard fare. So standard, really, that Danny barely even thought about it. He didn't even really care about the outcome most of the time, just liked having the chance to let off some steam in the middle of his more stressful days. It was actually pretty nice, most days, having that outlet. At least, that was, until things got kind of weird.

Steve kept glancing at Danny out of the side of his eye, and it was starting to drive Danny a little bit crazy. "What, Steven, what are you looking at?"

"Nothing." Said in that nonchalant tone, it was definitely something.

"Oh no, you are not drawing me into this again. The last time you pretended you were looking at nothing, we ended up having a staring contest that lasted twenty minutes."

"And you were a pretty sore loser, too."

"I did not lose! Just because I finally got fed up with staring at your ugly mug and decided that the better part of valor was to, you know, _do some actual work_ does not mean that you won."

"You got tired of looking at my face? That's the best explanation you've got? I've gotta say, Danno, that's pretty weak. And it doesn't matter why you looked away, anyway. You still lost."

"I'm sure the governor would be so pleased to hear you argue that staring was more important than doing your job."

"Like you have room to talk Mr. 'I'm Perpetually Running Late Because I Need My Malasadas to Function in the Morning'."

"You are just a laugh riot, aren't you? At least I don't take my shirt off while we're on the job and then do more preening than police work when people notice."

"No, you were just one of the ones noticing."

Danny opened his mouth and just floundered as his brain caught up and he realized that there was nothing he could say to that that wouldn't be an admission or a lie.

It made for an awkward afternoon.

***

Danny wasn't really sure how he should act around Steve after that, and Steve was, of course, no help at all. He didn't give Danny any sort of indication as to what he was thinking, and while Danny wished he could just bring himself to ask, in the end, the words never seemed willing to come out. And so, for awhile, they had a number of arguments that went like this:

Steve rolled down his window and turned up the radio just that little bit louder, just loud enough to make Danny grit his teeth in annoyance. He grudgingly rolled his window down as well and the sound spread out to a more comfortable level. He started tapping his fingers on the door, not quite in rhythm with the travesty coming out of the speakers.

Steve glanced over and frowned, speeding up ever so slightly a second later. Danny fussed with his tie, making sure it was done up just so, and straightening his collar afterward. Steve's mouth got tighter around the edges, and Danny couldn't help smirking meanly. Steve hated anything that reminded him that Danny didn't quite belong in Hawaii.

Then Steve smirked himself and started rolling up his t-shirt sleeves very deliberately. Danny looked intently out the window at that, but true to form, he couldn't look away for long. Seconds later, his eyes had drifted back to Steve, who seemed to be doing his best to flex his impressive muscles while looking like all he was doing was driving.

Steve could obviously feel a victory coming on, and he pressed his advantage, sinking lower into his seat and shifting _just so_ , in a way that ended with his pants pulled snug across his crotch, emphasizing the fact that he was rather...well-endowed in that area.

Danny could feel the flush sweep over his skin, though he couldn't have said whether it was embarrassment, anger, or arousal that prompted it. Maybe a combination of all three. Though he stared where Steve had obviously intended for longer than he should have, he eventually found it in himself to look away. Suddenly this game of one-upsmanship wasn't quite so amusing anymore.

Steve must have picked up on the change in mood, because he abruptly sat up straight and relaxed back into his usual driving slouch. Danny sighed in relief. Or was that disappointment?

***

Things were awkward for longer than they probably should have been, and there were way too many of those silent arguments for Danny's liking, but none of them ever devolved in quite the same way as that first one. Eventually, though, something had to give, and much to Danny's surprise, it was actually Steve who gave first (this would later be the only time he ever admitted to having given in first, though he still maintained that it had been for Danny's own good, as if). They'd finally managed to get to the point where they could bicker aloud without things going sideways, and Danny was taking full advantage of the chance to rant.

"And that's the other thing! You can't just assume that things are going to go your way! How many times have one of us ended up in mortal peril because you were all gung-ho about catching a bad guy? No, really. How many, Steve?"Steve just shrugged. "Too many! And you know how I know it's too many?" Steve shook his head. "I _lost count_! I actually lost count of how many times you have endangered my life. That should not even be possible, it really should not."

Steve pulled into the parking lot and threw the car into park, but Danny was on a roll, and Steve was going to listen to him say his piece. "If you wouldn't be so _cavalier_ about it, maybe showed the slightest hint of remorse for putting me in any of these situation-"

Danny looked over and Steve...Steve had the audacity to be _smiling_. "Is this amusing to you? Am I just here to provide you with entertainment? Because if that's what you think, you have got another thing coming, buddy. I'm trying to have a serious discussion, here, and you're just-"

And all at once it happened. Danny's words were still trying to come out, but they weren't making it very far, and they sounded awfully jumbled, what with the fact that they were now being said directly into Steve's mouth, which was unaccountably pressed right up against his. Danny flailed for a minute, his hands mid-gesture, before he pulled back and stared, mildly slack-jawed, at Steve.

"Why are you-?" was all Danny was able to get out before Steve cut in.

"Doing this now? It's not like I didn't want to before, Danny. I just wasn't quite sure how to deal with wanting to."

It wasn't much of an explanation, but it made a lot of sense coming from Steve. At least he'd worked it out eventually. Danny leaned back in for another kiss, and Steve was smiling right up until the point where their lips met.

***

The bickering never really stopped, but that was mostly due to a combination of habit, Danny's desire to let everything out, and Steve's apparent desire to listen to Danny's ranting. Of course, once they were partners in more than one sense of the word, things tended to go more like this:

"I am not coming over tonight just because you want to get fucked, Steve. I'm keeping my own place for a reason, and that reason is because sometimes I want to be _alone_. I thought you would get that a lot better than you actually seem to."

"Oh, so now wanting to spend time with you is a crime? You seem to like staying at my house plenty well when it's your idea."

"That's because I don't decide I want to come over when we've spent every minute of the last five days together and we're both practically asleep on our feet! How can you even get it up right now? And why would you want to?"

Steve grabbed hold of Danny's hand and pressed it firmly against his crotch, proving that he was, in fact, up for it right now. "Because you're so hot I can't help it?"

Danny knew Steve was only being sort of serious, but it still got to him, no doubt as Steve had intended it to. "Alright, I'll come over, but no sex until we've both had a solid eight hours of sleep, agreed?"

Steve looked like he'd tasted something sour and didn't like it much, but he nodded his assent, anyway. "I'm driving."

Danny just sighed. He didn't even know why Steve bothered trying to make that into an argument anymore.


End file.
